A CHEERFUL GIVER AND CHEERFUL GATHERINGS
E. C. Muggleton
2 Corinthians 9: 7; Zechariah 8: 18, 19
What is in mind in reading these scriptures is to speak about giving, a cheerful giver, and cheerful gatherings. You will notice the word that “God loves a cheerful giver”. Now I think every one of
us in the assembly should be a cheerful giver. God Himself is the great Giver. We need to think of God as the Giver of all good, and He is the great Blesser, too. It says, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?”, Romans 8: 32. What a wonderful impression, beloved brethren, to have of God, that He spared not His own Son. So when we think of giving, we think of God as the great Giver who “so loved the world”, as it says in John 3: 16, “that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal”. So we love to think of God having a world in which He is going to find His pleasure eternally, not a world of confusion or strife, but a world that is entirely suited to Him, a world that is centred in His beloved Son. As the Son of God He is the centre of God’s world and God is drawing our hearts in affection to Christ so as to have this before us.
I think the Lord has helped us as to the thought of giving and how the assembly is to take on this feature. What lies behind it is what is sacrificial. I believe all giving has its true basis in what is sacrificial. That is why I referred to Romans 8, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all”. Think of the sacrificial basis upon which God will secure, through Christ, a universe that will be responsive to Him eternally. So we read, “God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh”, Romans 8: 3. Christ came in in that way and God condemned sin in the flesh in regard of the work of Christ, and it was in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit. God loves to take account of His people according to Spirit.
I think the Lord would help us to see what is established in the statutes that Moses brought to Israel. We have in the beginning of Deuteronomy the statutes and ordinances that Moses spoke to all Israel. God has only one standard of things before Him and the statutes that have been laid down for us by the Lord in the ministry of those who have led in the recovery are for the whole assembly. The word “take heed” comes into Deuteronomy 12 six times. One word is “Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt-offerings in every place that thou seest; but in the place which Jehovah will choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt-offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee”, Deuteronomy 12: 13, 14. Now we are to think of the commandments; we are reminded of what Paul says, “If any one thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him recognise the things that I write to you, that it is the Lord’s commandment”, 1 Corinthians 14: 37. So the statutes are for all Israel and then we have, too, in Deuteronomy 12: 19, “Take heed to thyself that thou forsake not the Levite all the days thou shalt be in thy land”. Now, beloved brethren, that was laid down in the ministry of our beloved brother Mr. Taylor, that we should not forsake the levite. How wonderful it is that God can bring us round to these statutes so that no tribe is to be out of accord with them. How pleasing it is to God to see the saints moving in their tribes, moving in unity in relation to a statute that has been laid down.
What I have in mind in referring to this scripture is what God loves, and one thing He loves is a cheerful giver. Of course there are other things that God loves; He loves the gates of Zion more than all the habitations of Jacob (Psalm 87: 2). He loves our dwellings; He loves to be with us in our dwellings, but He loves the gates of Zion even
more. Who would fail to come up with his offering on the first day of the week? We should come with our offerings to the place “which Jehovah your God will choose to cause his name to dwell there”, Deuteronomy 12: 11. Now we are not to go to any place that we see, we are not to compromise, we are to move here as those who are true to the fellowship to which God has called us. It is the fellowship of His Son and it is to be the place which Jehovah shall choose to cause His name to dwell there. There is only one place; there is only one fellowship; there is only one loaf, one body. So God has in mind the unifying of the saints in relation to His statutes that are laid down for the whole assembly.
Then we are to “take heed to hear all these words which I command thee, that it may be well with thee, and with thy children after thee for ever, when thou doest what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah thy God”, Deuteronomy 12: 28. We can say, beloved brethren, that it is good and right that we should minister to the levites. It is an obligation of love, and I think basically it lies in the spirit of sacrifice. God loves a cheerful giver and what is given is to be dedicated for a specific purpose. The Lord has helped the saints in their giving to minister to the levites, that the work of the ministry and the work of the glad tidings, which is one matter, should go on unhindered and that the servants should be free to move and to minister to the saints. Now that is very pleasing to God and behind it all lies this thought that God loves a cheerful giver. We can think of the giving of Christ and the giving of God. What giving! And we are to be imitators of God, according to Ephesians 5: 1; “Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love”. I think that is the Deuteronomy setting, that we are to walk in love, we are to be formed in the divine nature, so that we move together in accord
with what is laid down for us in the ordinances and statutes for all Israel.
Now we know the two ordinances of christianity, one is baptism and the other the Lord’s supper. We are to pay attention to these things, for the Lord has commanded them, and we are to do “what is good and right in the eyes of Jehovah thy God”. If we are on this line we are pleasing to God. He loves to see the saints moving tribally in relation to these things. And then it says in the last verse of Deuteronomy 12, “Everything that I command you, ye shall take heed to do it; thou shalt not add thereto, nor take from it”. May we bear the word, ‘Take heed to do it’. It is not only that the Lord gives us light—and how we appreciate the help that came in in beloved Mr. Taylor’s time—but “Ye shall take heed to do it”.
Now I come to “cheerful gatherings”, and I think our gatherings, dear brethren, should be cheerful. I read from Zechariah because you will remember, in relation to the people coming out of captivity and the rebuilding of the temple, how they were stimulated and encouraged, and how they prospered, through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah. Now we are thankful for the ministry meeting, and the prophets who speak God’s mind. We are glad to hear His voice and we are to take heed to it. God has His prophets; He has had them since the world began.
Now we come to this prophet Zechariah. Jehovah’s word comes to His servant. It says in Zechariah 8: 1, “And the word of Jehovah of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts—I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great fury.
Thus saith Jehovah—I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; and Jerusalem shall be called, The city of truth; and
the mountain of Jehovah of hosts, The holy mountain”. So we have been reminded of the assembly of God in a place, that it is a holy assembly and it is a holy fellowship. Do not let us lower the standard. God in His mercy brought Israel and guided them, according to Exodus 15, to the abode of His holiness, the place that He chose to put His name there. And that is where we are to bring our offerings. Let us see that we are coming to that place, the place of the abode of His holiness. It is like the assembly in the wilderness.
When we come to Zechariah 8: 6 you get the word again, “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts—If it be wonderful in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, should it also be wonderful in mine eyes? saith Jehovah of hosts. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts—Behold, I will save my people from the east country and from the west country; and I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness”. How wonderful it is that we can be in truth and in righteousness in this day of so much departure from it. “But now I will not be unto the remnant of this people as in the former days, saith Jehovah of hosts; for the seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things”
(Zechariah 8: 11, 12). We are thus in a wonderful time. God is causing the dew to come, and the ground yields its produce; God loves prosperity and the people prospered through the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah. God will have a prosperous people—He loves the thought of prosperity. He is so rich in the way He blesses us, rich in mercy. We have the rich, unlimited character of God’s giving and of His blessing towards
us. He loves to bless His people and God is blessing them today, causing the ground and the seed to be prosperous—“the vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew”. We are to be encouraged in these things. There is an area in the local assembly that is prosperous and this prosperity is in the hearts of the saints.
You will remember that in John’s third epistle his great desire as to Gaius was “that in all things thou shouldest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospers”. God loves the thought of soul prosperity, and what lies behind it is sacrifice; it is the fruit of the sacrifice of God, and the sacrifice of Christ—how we love to think of the burnt-offering, the character of His giving, and then of how Christ loved the assembly and delivered Himself up for it. God would have us to be here walking in love, even as Christ loved us and delivered Himself up for us, an offering of sweet-smelling savour to God (Ephesians 5: 1, 2). God has also a sweet-smelling savour in the sacrificial offering of the saints, and I believe it enters into what is dedicated in their material giving as well. May the Lord strengthen us in this.
Then I come to Zechariah 8: 18, “And the word of Jehovah of hosts came unto me, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts—The fast of the fourth month and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful gatherings”. May there be cheerful gatherings in our localities. I think the saints should not be held up by all the breakdown and confusion that we find around us; our gatherings should take on the features of joy and gladness. “Love ye then truth and peace”.
May the Lord strengthen us in this desire. I believe
He has been helping us in regard of these matters, that we should observe the statutes that are laid down for us in the Scriptures. God has great pleasure in seeing His people coming together and being joyful and having cheerful gatherings, unified together in what is for His own heart, all being based on the wonderful sacrifice of Christ through which all will be brought to pass for the pleasure of God eternally in the vast universe of bliss.
May we be obedient to what God has laid down for us, the ordinances and the statutes that are for all Israel, and thus be prospered together in unity, “For there hath Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore”, Psalm 133: 3. Let us use diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace—truth and peace are to be in our gatherings.
Brethren dwelling together in unity is “like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard”. May we thus be encouraged, and the brethren helped, in doing what is pleasing to God, for His name’s sake.
Address in Barbados
12 February 1977